Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (July 19): Owing to the market contraction, British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd registered a 21.07% drop in net profit to RM113.72 million for the second quarter ended June 30.

In a bourse filing, BAT also attributed its lower earnings to the absence of the sale of residual leaf raw materials to related companies outside of Malaysia and the portfolio mix impact as a result of its Rothmans launch in the Value for Money (VFM) segment.

Revenue was 9.24% lower at RM679.15 million from RM748.31 million in the same quarter last year.

BAT declared a second interim dividend of 35 sen — amounting to RM99.94 million — for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2018 (FY18), payable on Aug 23.

However, Malaysia's largest tobacco company cautioned that legal volumes continue to be impacted by the easy availability of illegal cigarettes, estimated to account for 63% of the total market.

For the cumulative six months, net profit slipped 18.85% to RM209.61 million, against RM258.31 million last year. Revenue also declined 12.02% to RM1.32 billion, versus RM1.45 billion in 1HFY17.

"The outlook of the second half of 2018 will be very much dependant on the recovery of the legal market," the company said.

BAT closed two sen or 0.06% lower to RM33.68, for a market capitalisation of RM9.62 billion.

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